The present invention relates to a device for the transport and medical care of patients, as well as for the provision of emergency medical care in an aircraft, which device can be arranged and permanently installed inside the passenger cabin of an aircraft, has a stretcher and medical care equipment, and shields the patient from the environment at least with lateral elements.
Rising passenger numbers, longer flight times and worldwide demographic development is imparting more and more importance to providing care to collapsed passengers on board a passenger aircraft, i.e., emergency medical care. The return of injured tourists from abroad to their home countries is taking on a more essential role as well. Devices for transporting and providing emergency medical care to patients are known in different variants. The simple variants are characterized in that they only provide a stretcher for emergency cases, on which a patient is placed lying down. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,952 B2 describes a stretcher that is secured to a substructure carried between the passenger seats, wherein the stretcher runs across the seat backrest. When not in use, the stretcher is stowed in a kind of cabinet. The fundamental problem lies in the fact that as little space as possible should be taken up for patient transport on the one hand, while the patient should also be shielded away form the other passengers to some extent on the other. Known to this end from U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,366 B1 is a device in which the patient is pushed onto a stretcher partially in a compartment used as a toilette as the remaining passengers board and disembark. In order to use the toilette during flight, the stretcher is removed from the WC compartment, and then projects into the space in front of the aircraft entry. In another variant, e.g., the so-called FTI (Airbus A380), a cot is folded out of a type of cabinet into the aisle in an emergency. Since the described solutions provide little if any shielding for the patient relative to the other passengers, and can also often impair flight operations, these solutions are used very rarely, if at all, for the return transport of patients. Therefore, solutions involving a sealed room are used for the return transport of patients. Smaller aircraft equipped for these types of flights are most often involved. An autarchic unit is here most frequently used for providing medical care in the aircraft or helicopter, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,864. Also known is a patient transport compartment developed by Lufthansa Technik AG under the name Lufthansa PTC. However, before the latter can be built into an airliner, twelve passenger seats must first be removed. But this solution has proven to be associated with high costs and a high logistical outlay.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a simple and space-saving device that is suitable for providing immediate medical care in an emergency, and can be used for the return transport of a patient.